Zomato Shuts Down Online Ordering in 4 Indian Cities

Gurgaon-based restaurant discovery platform Zomato announced Monday that it will be shutting down its food ordering service in Lucknow, Kochi, Indore, and Coimbatore.

Zomato launched its online food ordering operations in April 2015, and the service was available in 14 cities across India, the company said.

"The size of the market is in these cities is small right now and is growing with time. We will re-launch when the time is right," said Pankaj Chaddah, Co-Founder, Zomato, who leads the online ordering business for the company. Zomato had shut down its cashless payments business in October.

In an emailed statement, the company said its marketing efforts didn't see a significant increase in the order volumes in these cities. The combined order volume in these four cities accounted for less than two percent of its total order volumes, the company said, adding that it will reconsider its strategy in the future.

Zomato claimed that its online order volume is growing at a healthy 40 percent month-on-month, adding that less than five percent of its orders are discounted.

Zomato quotes 75,000 restaurant listings on its platform, and said that its online ordering feature works with 12,000 restaurants and uses delivery partners Grab and Delhivery for restaurants that don't do deliveries.

Hyperlocal delivery service Grofers, another Sequoia-funded startup, temporarily closed down its operations in nine Indian cities earlier this month.